Today is the birthday of Expressionist artist Chaim Soutine (b 1893 – 1943 Belarus) Soutine who was inspired by classical painting in the European tradition and he favoured colour, texture and shape over representation. His work acted as a bridge between traditional approach and the evolvment of Abstract Expressionism.

Soutine was born near Minsk (when it was part of the Russian empire) and one of eleven children, Soutine studied at the Vilna Academy of Fine Arts in Vilnius between 1910 – 1913 He emigrated to Paris with fellow artist Pinchus Kremegne (1890 – 1981) and Michel Kikoine 1892 – 1968) where he studied under Fernand Cormon at the Errcole des Beaux-Arts.

Little Girl with Doll 1919

Portait of a Nurse c 1916

He became friends with Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) and he painted Soutine’s portrait several times when they were all struggling artists in Montparnasse. Modigliani’s most famous portrait of Soutine was painted on an apartment door belonging to Leopold Zborowski (1889 – 1932) their art dealer. Zborowski was later to take the artist to Nice to escape Paris when it was being bombed in WWI.

After struggle and poverty, often helped by his friends and fellow artists, Soutine finally managed to sell 100 paintings to American collector Albert C. Barnes who established his Foundation Museum in Merion, USA in 1922.. With the proceeds, the artist now began to enjoy a better life and dividing his time between Paris , the Pyrenees and the Riviera.

Man with ribbons

Although a passionate artist, Soutine left few works. He suffered from anxiety and tempers and destroyed a lot of his paintings. There are a few stories about this artist which give us a sketch of his personality and the effect it had upon his work. One of them concerns one of his most iconic set of images series Le Boeuf Ecorche’ .

Three studies for the Crucifixion by Francis Bacon 1962

His neighbours complained about the stench of the animal carcass which he kept in his studio and called the police. But Soutine remained unrepentant, advocating art over hygiene. He painted 10 of the carcass paintings, inspired by Rembrandt’s Carcass of Beef (1655) sometimes known as The Flayed Ox after studying the Old Master’s in the Louvre, Paris. One of the paintings in Soutine’s series Le Boeuf Ecorche’(1924) sold for £7.8 million in 2006.

Little Pastry Cook

His work is characterised by its frantic brushwork, often violent colour and distorted images which covey emotion and he liked to paint bell boys, waiters and hotel workers – ordinary everyday people. In 1937 Soutine was hailed as a great painter, even though he did not take part in an important exhibition The Origins and Development of International Independent Art which was held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume. Very soon after that, the France was invaded by the Germans and Soutine, as a Jew had to flee Paris to avoid arrest by the Gestapo. He lived as best he could and eventually left a safe shelter to return to Paris for an operation for a bleeding stomach ulcer. The operation was not a success and he died of a perforated ulcer on August 9, 1943 . Soutine was interred in Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris.

Today is the birthday of French Symbolist artist Odilon Redon (b. France 1840 – 1916). Redon (real name Bertrand-Jean) was also a printmaker, draughtsman and worked in pastels. Born to an affluent family Redon acquired the nickname Odilon from his mother Odile.

Angel-In-Chains

He studied drawing at 15 but changed his path to architecture because his father approved this. This was to prove a mistake because Redon didn’t pass his entrance exam to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, though he was to study painting there for a short time.

Apollos-Chariot4

Redon then took up sculpture and the etching and printmaking but had to put his artistic career on hold whilst he joined the Franco-Prussian army in the 1870 war. When he came back to Paris after the war, he began to work with lithography and in charcoal (he was to call these his noirs).

The Cyclops The Guardian Spirit of the Waters

Recognition came in 1878 with Guardian Spirit of the Waters. After 1900 Redon produced no more noirs, preferring to work in pastels and oils. The legion of Honour was awarded the artist in 1903, exhibited with the Nabis at Durand-Ruel’s and in 1913 he was given the largest single representation in New Yorks Armory Show as well as having a catalogue and etching produced by Andre Mellerio.

The-Yellow-Cape

Redon’s work is both mysterious and revealing, exploring his inner feelings and his psyche. This is what the artist says about his inner inspiration behind his work in his journal A Soi-même (To Myself);-

“I have often, as an exercise and as a sustenance, painted before an object down to the smallest accidents of its visual appearance; but the day left me sad and with an unsatiated thirst. The next day I let the other source run, that of imagination, through the recollection of the forms and I was then reassured and appeased.”

PLUS Don’t forget there’s another poetry challenge over on my Bookstains Just click Julie Andrews (she’ll thank you for it 😀 ) This particular challenge is a real wacky fun one and is a departure from my usual art based one!

WordPress blog Art of the Day can always be relied upon to feature interesting art. It also has it’s own Facebook page, which is where I first saw this artist. Once seen, I just had to take a further look! Heidi Keyes is an artist who spends her time either painting or flying (she is also a flight attendant). She divides her time between Milwaukie, Denver when grounded, and the rest of her time is spent flying around the world.

Her wild contour paintings are full of colour energy and life – her technique a combination of intuition and emphasis. Though the artist does paint realistically occasionally, she prefers to experiment with exaggerated line. The artist’s way of working is explained below;-

“I depict various stages and situations of the human figure in my work. These images are selected to express the incompleteness of humanity, a continuous search for truer answers. I look to the moment when one finds oneself on the precipice of a life-altering decision, reluctant to continue, but too far gone to turn back– the past and the future expressed in a single brushstoke of delicious uncertainty. I use washes to achieve this effect of impermanence, and allow them to drip freely down the canvas, embracing spontaneity in my work, as in my life.”

Rainy Day Girl

The paintings are quite arresting and there is a sense of immediacy – that they are of the moment. Energy and life spring out of these loose spontaneous paintings. They are startlingly honest and refreshingly unrestrictive.

“The way I look at painting is the way I view my life– nothing is ever certain, and often the best results come from mistakes.”

The artist started experimenting with her technique because she became frustrated with the excruciating detail of art and she found that her pursuit for perfection was actually impeding her artistic expression. Her love of blind contour drawing lead her to experiment with the brush – and her art became ‘freed’!

I was pleased and surprised at the level of sophistication achieved through the use of simplistic lines and connected forms. The figures I created were uncertain, unsure, and often pensive, but my lines were confident and bold.

Crossing the Liberty Bridge Budapest Hungary

Not only does the artist paint figuratively, she has also produced a series called ‘Fly’ which consists of paintings she has done in hotel rooms around the world. I particularly like her use of colour in these paintings, my favorite being The Liberty Bridge Budapest Hungary from this series.

It’s American Regionalist artist Grant Wood’s birthday today. As I have already celebrated this artist’s birthday (see this post) and wrote about him at some length, I thought it might be interesting to look at more of the artist’s most famous work – American Gothic. Grant Wood was born on this day in Anamosa Iowa USA (1891 – 1942) and is famous for painting the American Midwest, along with fellow Regionalist artists Thomas Hart Benton (see this post) and John Steuart Currie.

American Gothic by Grant Wood 1930

Though known as a painter, Wood also worked in ceramics, wood and metal as well as producing lithographs, ink and charcoal drawings. The Regionalism movement opposed European abstraction and promoted figurative painting in rural American , primarily the Midwest. Associated American Artists marketed Woods work for many years and he encouraged John Steuart Currie and Thomas Hart Benton (see my post about this artist) to return to the Midwest in the 1930, finding teaching positions for them.

American Gothic (1930) is a national icon, it gave Wood recognition. The painting has been interpreted as a satire against small town American ruralist, though Wood always rejected this interpretation. He said that the painting, painted during the Depression, depicted the pioneer spirit. This image has been parodied, distorted, and borrowed from so many times – and here in this video are many different versions of the painting. Some are innovative, some silly, some thought-provoking and some – well just bizarre 🙂 One can only marvel at Grant Wood for inspiring these though!

To celebrate this birthday I am hosting another Bookstains Poetry Challenge – you guessed it …..American Gothic what else! Update; Three poems have arrived for the challege – just click the button to see 🙂

I thought that I’d do an update as I haven’t done one since my 550th in June. I am glad that the experiment in cutting down my blog post by posting every few days doesn’t seem to affected my views. Posting every day (which I managed for a full year) was getting very time-consuming: life and Bookstains were suffering!

Hogarth another past post (birthday I think)

What I thought I would do for this post is look at some posts going right back: posts that never really got a proper airing in the early days.

My Bronte bites (must update these with another trip to Haworth)

My blog has changed completely over the a few years – so much added; so many categories. The book reviews and poetry have had to be accommodated in Bookstains where I’m hosting poetical challenges based on paintings. But just for fun and because I’m feeling nostalgic – here area tiny minute fractionof my early ‘Yesterdays’ Please feel free to comment:-)

Portuguese born narrative painter, printer and illustrator (1935) Paula Rego became a Dame the other day on the Queens birthday for her contribution to Art! Anyone who has read this blog from the beginning will know that I rate Rego highly as an artist. I wrote a post about this artist and William Hogarth here

paula rego snow white and her stepmother

Her visually storytelling is sometimes disturbing and her work is always enigmatic and open to interpretation. I filled two whole journals with a Transcription of Rego’s ‘Snow White and her Stepmother’ (starting here). Rego finds a lot of her characters in Fairy Tales and nursery rhymes – giving them a social realistic twist. She likes to rework stories weaving her own magic and artistry.

the fitting

An example is shown in the painting ‘The Fitting’ which is reminiscent of Valasquez ‘s ‘Las Meninas’ is has lots of symbolic realism and makes the viewer want to unravel the mystery.

This short video features the artist explaining about her work and her use of props.

I wrote a post called the Painted ladies last night. I schedulled it, everthiing and put quite a bit of work into it , only to have it not come on. Fuming! and I AM! . here’s the the one I did last night –